Increasing cooperation in the field of education, the Russian Government has from this year substantially increased the number of scholarships for the Indian students interested in pursuing higher education from Russia.

According to Fyodor Rozovsky, Director of Russian Centre of Science and Culture in New Delhi, the number of scholarships for Indian students has been increased from 20 in the past to 100 this year, keeping in mind the huge interest among the student community.

Besides, two new special scholarships have been constituted by the Russian Government for four meritorious students in the field of medical education. The ‘Druzhba Scholarship’ is in the memory of former Russian envoy to India Alexander M Kadakin, and ‘Badhte Kadam Scholarship’ in the memory of former scientist and Indian President APJ Kalam. 

In addition, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation, ROSATOM, will soon be offering scholarships to Indian students keen to pursue nuclear engineering in Russia. ROSATOM officials said Russia considers India as one of its biggest partners and the move is part of the ongoing cooperation between the two countries under which education is seen as a prospective area of collaboration.

Rozovsky said that this year alone nearly 2,500 students got registered with the RusEducation, the organisation authorised by Russian Government for foreign education collaboration in India, for courses in medical, engineering, aviation, mathematics and Russian language. A total of 99 medical institutions in Russia have been recognised by the Medical Council of India.

“We have the biggest cooperation with India and the interest among Indian students is increasing,” he added.

Russia is also a popular education destination for nuclear engineering, with more than 1,400 students from 37 countries currently studying in the country. With the number of its nuclear power plants (NPP) growing substantially, India will soon be in need of higher number of nuclear engineers, scientists and technicians.

India recently announced decision to make 10 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors and construction of two more reactors at Kudankulam. India has already 21 nuclear reactors under construction while 22 reactors are in operation. Besides, India is also collaborating with Russia for the Rooppur NPP in Bangladesh, which will be India-Russia’s first joint-venture in a third country.

“Indian students are already studying nuclear engineering in Russia and ROSATOM is planning to provide scholarships to deserving students from South India and other parts of the country,” a ROSATOM official told The Pioneer. These scholarships are meant for undergraduate and post graduate studies in major Russian universities like the National Research Nuclear University (NRNU), Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI) and Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU).

“We have a specialists’ course for representatives of the countries where ROSATOM will build NPPs with documentation in the Russian language. I mean a degree in Nuclear Power Plants: Design, Operation and Engineering…However, some of our educational projects may be implemented in English. The documentation for several new NPPs, for example, in Jordan and Finland, will be written in English,” said Valery Karezin, Director of Educational Projects and the Human Resource service of ROSATOM.
Source: The Pioneer